Latch



1933- F. w. MCCORMICK LATCH Filed Feb. 15, 1932 \nuen Patented Oct. 17, 1933 uNrrEo STATES rear Claims.

*ntion relates generally to a latch and ularly to an automatic latch which is its inoperative positon when disengaged keeper and which is spring pressed to u.ve positon when the latch leverengages e keeper. of the difiiculties hitherto experienced in of th type has been that the latch lever ms; the keeper during the closing ation of the door to which the latch was attached, thereby slowing the door in its moveine t preventing a tight closure thereof.

It is one aim of the present invention to overcome ti o diiiiculty just recited and i do so by a latch lever held in inoperative posi- -on a shoulder contactin therewith, the lever being shifted axially along its pivot shai t upon the engagement of the same with the thus lowing the latch lever spring to Je and press the latch lever to its It is to be noted, however, that c t between the keeper and the latch s when the lever has practically its innermost position and thus'a tight closure of the door due to its inertia is not hindered.

Another advantage of my invention resides in its construction whereby the latch mechanism may be placed upon either side of the swinging 3O door, that is, the latch is either right or left hand.

Further advantages accrue from the simple construction whereby economy of manufacture is had 111d whereby'expediency of attachment of the latch to the door is attained and other meritorious features of my invention will be deter- -ined upon an understanding of the following n the drawing:-

Fig. 1 is a view looking at the inner face of the latch housing, this View being taken along the line ll of Fig. 3.

Fig. 2 is a view partly in cross section, this view being taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 3. 3 is a view taken along the line 33 of Fig. 2, this view illustrating a typical installation of my invention.

4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but showing he arrangement of the several elements of the '50 .atoh mechanism when the latch is in inoperative -Ltion. is. 5

is a view taken along the line 55 of w Fl Fig. 7 isa View taken along the line 7--"? of Fig. 2, this view illustrating particularly the arrangeinent between the inner end of the lever and'the stop niemh 8 a perspecti view of the stop member.

Fig. 9 is a side view of the keeper, the full line showing of the latch lever indicating its locked position the dotted line showing indicating its position immediately before the latched. position.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

Referring particularly to Figures'B and 4, numeral'lO indicates a swinging door to which my improved. latch mechanism has been attached and 11, see Figs. 3 and 9, indicates the jamb to which the keeper i2 fastened.

The keeper is oiiset as indicated at 13 and has a latch lever opening 14 therethrough, this opening being formed with a sloping surface 15 against which the top outer end of the latch lever rides as will be set forth later inthe specification.

The door member 10 has an opening 16 therethrough to receive the latch s1- .-t 30, the latch shaft 36 being revoluhly supported in the rosette 31 and having ahandle member 32. The shaft 30 is flattened at its on opposite sides as indi cated. This is clearly shown in Fig.

Referring particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, 21 indicates the latch housing, this housing having oppositely disposed flat portions which abut against the door 10 and through which bolts 22 pass and two depressions are formed in the housing, these depressed portions being connected by a depressed portion. This is clearly shown in Fig. 2. Referring to Fig. 2, it will be seen the the depression at the left is adapted to receive the end of the shaft 30 therethrough, see also Figs. 3 to 6, inclusive, and a cup member 23 is press fitted into the said depression, this cup member having an opening therein to snugly receive the opposite curved portions, of the end or" the shaft 30. A coiled spring 2% is located inside of the cup member and engages against the enlarged portion 25 of the latch lever 20 thereby tending to push the latch lever to the position shown in Fig. 4. The latch lever is oifset at its rear end to form a portion 26 which slidably contacts with the stop member 40.

The stop member 40 is of channel shape, see Fig. 8, and has sets of ledges or shoulders 41 and 42 formed thereon. The stop member 40 is forced into the right hand depression in the casing member 21, see Figs. 1, 2 and 7, and it can be reversed whenever such is desired to change the latch from right-hand to left-hand.

The rear end 26 of the latch 20 is formed with ears 27, one of these ears engaging the coiled spring 50 whereby the outer end of the latch lever 20 is urged toward an operative position.

lhe operation is readily understood. The disclosure of Fig. 3 shows the latch in its locked position, that is, the outer end of the latch lever 20 is in the full line position shown in Fig. 9 whereby the door 10 is held from swinging outwardly. In order to release the door from this position the handle 32 is grasped and rotated downwardly and this causes the flat surfaces 33 on the shaft to engage with the latch lever 20 to thereby turn the same so that the outer end 20 thereof moves upwardly toward the dotted line position indicated in Fig. 9.

As the outer end of the latch lever 20 moves upwardly, the rear end 26 thereof moves down wardly thus compressing the coiled spring and the portion 26 also rides away from the shoulder or ledge ll and oil of the shoulder 42 and engages against the latter, thus locking the lever 2i) against return motion.

As the portion 26 of the latch lever slides off of the shoulder 42 the spring 24 causes it to assume the position as shown in Fig. 1 and the lever remains in this positionduring the time that the door 10 is open. When the door 10 is closed, the end of the latch lever 2c strikes against the inclined surface 15 of the keeper and this pushes the lever 20 to the position shown in Fig. 3 and when this occurs the inner portion 26 of the latch lever is out of engagement with and is above the shoulder 42 and consequently the spring 59 be comes operative to push the portion 26 of the lever against the shoulder or ledge 41 and this movement also looks the door as the outer end of l the latch lever drops to the full line position as shown in Fig. 9. From the above description, it will be appreciated that I have invented an article which is adapted for either right-hand or left-hand doors and one which can be easily and quickly installed. In this regard, please note that the-cup member 23 holds the lever and the spring 24 in position during assemblage of the several parts and likewise the channel shaped stop member 40 serves to maintain the spring 50 in its proper position as will be readily apparent from the drawing.

Having thus revealed this invention I claim as new and desire to secure the following combinations and elements, or equivalents thereof, by Letters Patent of the United States.

I claim:

1. A latch housing having two depressions therein connected by a depressed portion, a shaft extending through one of said depressions, a latch lever mounted upon said shaft and extending through said depressed portion into the other depression, spring means located in said second depression on one side of the latch lever and means press fitted into said second depression for maintaining the spring in place.

2. In a latch construction, the combination of a housing provided with a latch lever mounted in said housing for swinging and tilting movement, said latch lever including an offset portion located interiorly of said housing whereby the portion of the latch lever adjacent said offset portion may serve as a fulcrum about which the lever may have the aforesaid tilting movement, spring means acting upon said latch lever to maintain it against tilting movement, and stop means engaged by said latch lever when the latch lever is tilted in opposition to the said spring means and additional means for urging the latch lever against the said stop means.

3. In combination, a casing, a latch lever pivoted therein, said latch lever having one end thereof terminating within the casing, said casing extending on either side of said end of the lever whereby spring means may be inserted between the casing and either side of the end of the lever,

and a closure member adapted to maintain the a spring in operative position.

4. In a device of the character described, a casing having a circular depression therein and a rectangularly shaped depression spaced there from together with a connecting depression, a latch lever extending through the several depressions and terminating in the rectangularly shaped depression, means for pivoting the latch lever centrally of the circular depression, and spring means adapted to be received between the end of the rectangularly shaped depression and the end of the lever and means for maintaining the said spring in operative position, said means also having a stop thereon to limit the movement of the said latch lever.

5. In a latch mechanism of the class described, a shaft, a latch lever mounted upon the said shaft, a stop member located adjacent said latch lever, a ledge upon the stop member, said latch stop lever engaging said ledge when it is in its unlatched position, spring means for urging the latch lever to its latched position, and additional spring means adapted to act upon the latch lever to urge it toa position for engagement with the said ledge, said stop member being reversible and said first mentioned spring means being movable to act thereupon for the purpose described.

FRED W. MCCORMICK. 

